Never Back Down
by NeedFerSpeed
Summary: Aero wakes up in the hospital after being unconscious for a week. He figures out what happens, but then an old enemy of his returns. He and his friends now have to fight this threat to Sunset City one idiot at a time.
1. Chapter 1

Aero, a grey-furred mink with four thick fur spines on his head, each tipped with orange arrow designs, orange chest fur that reached to his back, and orange eyes, sat up in his bed. However, he did not recall ever taking off his orange fingerless gloves, red metallic wrist and ankle cuffs, and green boots with black stripes and black tips at all.

"How did I get here?" he asked himself. He took a look around. The room was all white, including his bed, too. In fact, this wasn't even his bed. "Is this... the hospital?" he asked himself. "It can't be... how would I have gotten here if I was unconscious?" A door opened on the far side of the room. Aero snapped his head in that direction.

"You're awake?" a female hedgehog asked Aero. She was dressed in white pants, a white shirt, but also wore a red apron. The apron had a white cross on it, signifying that she was a hospital nurse and that Aero was, in fact, in a hospital. "Are you okay? Do you need any water? Food?" the nurse hedgehog asked Aero. He thought about it for a few seconds.

"I'll have water, please." he answered. He then proceeded to lie back down on the bed, resting his muscles as he knew that he was safe in a hospital. He heard the nurse's footsteps as she walked to the door, into the hallway, and then heard the click as the door closed. _What the heck happened? How did I end up unconscious... who found me? _Aero thought as he awaited his glass of water.

The nurse had returned with Aero's water five minutes ago, and now she was bombarding him with questions that he did not know the answers to. It was annoying. Aero wanted to defeat fresh water's purpose by spitting all of it at the nurse's face. But he also knew that this was her job. She probably wasn't even the one who wrote the questions down. Even though he was annoyed, he answered the questions as best he could. He was told before hand that there were only twenty unanswerable questions to somehow get the answer to after he just woke up, and he was only on number six.

"Do you happen to remember any of the day before you went unconscious?" the hedgehog nurse questioned Aero.

"The day before..." he whispered to himself. "The day before... I think I was on my way out of Sunset City, but a little girl's drawing flew out of her hands while I was walking. I used my aerokinesis to stop the wind from blowing it around. I saw her grab it, but then I just... fell on the ground. I had no energy left for some reason. And I am a very agile person, too. Even when I hit the concrete beneath my feet... it felt like I was still falling. Falling into a dark abyss with no beginning, no end. And then everything went blank." Aero looked at the nurse, who was jotting things down.

"So maybe it was exhaustion?" she asked. Aero shook his head.

"I also had plenty of energy left in me at the time." he watched her jot another note. She shook her head, clearly confused.

"I don't know what happened to you. Might your body have just... collapsed?" Aero thought for a bit before answering,

"It's a possibility." he stated. He was back to being bored. When would these questions end? _Probably never, _he thought, _and I'll be forced into an eternity of annoying questions. _

What felt like a few minutes later, however, the questions were finished. The nurse had left, but not before telling him to rest more. And Aero was very happy to comply.


	2. Chapter 2

A little human girl was drawing at a glass patio table. She was making a drawing for her mother, who was talking and laughing with her husband and friends. The little girl finished, hopping out of her chair and running to her mother. She was about two feet away from her when the paper flew out of her hands. It was picked up by the wind and flew over to the sidewalk. Aero was walking down this sidewalk at just the right time, however, and managed to use his aerokinesis to stop the wind that was blowing the paper, catching it so that it did not hit the ground. He observed where it had come from and saw the little girl crying by her mother, who was trying to soothe her. Aero walked toward the patio, holding the paper up for the girl. She wiped the tears from around her eyes and smiled, prancing to the grey-furred mink and grabbing the paper from Aero. She said a quiet 'thank you', then returned to her mother. Aero smiled a little, then spun around and headed back to the sidewalk. Suddenly he collapsed. He felt the hard concrete against his face. And then randomly, he was falling. Falling, falling, falling... into a place that he could not see. He could do nothing about it. He could not fly upward- he could not move at all. However, it ended soon... he faded away into darkness... then nothing. He saw nothing, felt nothing, and was nothing.

Aero awoke. He was still in the hospital, and it was now about five in the afternoon. He looked at his glass of water. He gulped it down, even though it was a little warm.

"So, that _is _what happened." the mink remembered as he set the now-empty glass back on the stand next to the bed. "It also explains why my face hurts..." he grunted, his eyes closing halfway in an annoyed state. Aero leaned back, staring at the ceiling. The window was open, and he could feel the breeze blowing in. The sun was also bright, and it did not look like it was five at all. Aero suddenly felt alive again. Not tired like he had been all day long. He felt that he should return to his home, too. He got off the bed, walking over to his boots and gloves. He slipped both on, then clicked the wrist and ankle cuffs on. "Time to go home..." he moaned as he stretched out his arms and legs and back. His eyes rolled up for a split second in delight, loving the feeling of the stretch and the thought of going home. He opened the door and strode into the hallway.

Aero was now in the main area on ground-level, and he was walking to the check-out desk.

"Hello, sir!" the woman behind the desk smiled. She was a red-furred ferret, she had blue eyes, too. She asked him what his name was. He told her that it was Aero Integra. "Oh, I don't know if you should go just yet." she said.

"Well I don't care what you think, I'm going home." he turned around, but she stopped him.

"Sir, you should probably stay here for another day." the ferret said, grabbing his arm from over her desk.

"No! I stayed here for an entire week of my life. _I am going home!_" he pulled his arm out of her grip, smirked a sarcastic smirk with a sarcastic thumbs-up, then proceeded to swagger out the door like a boss. He drew in sweet, fresh air. Aero, relieved, was now going to run to his house. He put his right foot in front of him, made sure his cuffs were actually clicked around his wrists and mid-foreleg, and finally darted off toward his domain.


	3. Chapter 3

Aero was on the front doorstep of his house. Well, it was not just _his _house in all respect. He shared it with his friends Psi and Shiru. Aero knocked on the door, realizing that he did not have his keys on him. The door opened to reveal a white-furred wolf with green arrows above both of his inner eye corners. He had grey chest fur that reached down to his lower abdomen, violet eyes, and he was currently wearing his silver metallic wrist and ankle cuffs. However, he lacked his cyan scarf, red gloves with black rectangular patches, and black boots with red tips.

"Aero! You're back!" the wolf exclaimed, throwing his arms out to his sides. He stepped back to let Aero into the house.

"Nice to see you. Is Shiru here, too?" Aero asked. His answer came from upstairs,

"Great to have you back in the house, Aero!" came the voice of the hedgehog. Aero and Psi then heard footsteps pounding the stairs as Shiru made his way down.

"Careful, hedgehog!" Aero shouted, "You don't want to break the stairs!" Just then Shiru appeared in front of the two, a smile on his face. Shiru, an orange-furred hedgehog with dark blue eyes and white chest fur, was full of energy. Like Psi, he too lacked his attire of blue fingerless gloves and his blue boots, but he also lacked his navy metallic cuffs. He and Aero high-fived each other.

"This place felt a little empty without you, Aero." he winked. Psi nodded then placed an elbow on Shiru's left shoulder and leaned on his right leg. This was a habit, and both Shiru and Psi were okay with it.

"That hospital was boring. It's good that you two weren't there, you would have hated it. I got asked a bunch of questions that I couldn't answer! If I remember correctly, I only really had an answer to one of them, and even then, I wasn't actually sure that it was correct until I went to sleep and had a flashback dream about it." Aero explained to his two best friends. They were like brothers to him, except that they were nice and got along well, which separated them from most blood brothers. "Ah, I'm going to go to my room, guys. Hit me up when dinner is done." said Aero, who then trotted up the stairs and into his room.

"Yep, he's normal at least." Psi looked at Shiru, who nodded in agreement.

"Yep." the hedgehog stated. _I wonder what we are even having for dinner._ The hedgehog yawned and went back to his room to sleep.

"I'm guessing that he's going to sleep again," breathed Psi, "typical of him." He leaned against the nearest wall, bored. He thought about what he could do to flip the boredom to doing something. _Clean? Nah... cook? Nah. Maybe I could go for a run or something? _Psi looked over at the drawer that held multiple stacks of Post-It notes in it. That drawer had a splitter that also contained many different colored pens of the same model. _I'll write Shiru a note in case he wakes up. _the wolf thought as he stepped to the Post-It and pen drawer, pulling it out and grabbing a Post-It. He grabbed a light green pen with light green ink. He then quickly went through his options again. Suddenly a new one popped into his head. "Ah!" he smiled, then began to write the note.

"Went over to Marissa's house, be back around nine. Ha, you two are having a late dinner! Psi". The wolf tossed the pen back into the drawer and closed it. He walked over to the bulletin board the three had in the kitchen for new missions and notes, sticking his note onto it. He spun on his heels and slipped into his boots. He put his gloves on and exited the house through the front door with a smile on his muzzle.


	4. Chapter 4

Psi was walking to Susan's house when a park came into view. He decided he would stop there, as he also needed to call her to make sure he could actually come over. He had forgotten to do that back at home, embarrassingly. He trotted over to the park, locating a bench to sit on. He pulled out his phone and dragged his finger up, opening it to the dashboard. He tapped his contacts, swiped down to Susan's number, then tapped the 'call' icon. He waited, listening to the buzzing as it waited for Susan to pick up the line.

"Hello?" a voice questioned from the other side of the line.

"Hey, Susan. It's me, Psi." Psi answered.

"Oh, hey!" she said, obviously with a smile. Psi always could tell when Susan was smiling. She just sounded... nicer to him.

"I was wondering if I could come over. Aero's doing something in his room and Shiru is sleeping. And I'm bored." Psi asked her.

"Sure, Psi! Whenever you'd like too, you're welcome." Psi smiled as he told her that he was on his way. The wolf hung up and slipped his phone into the silver cuff on his left boot. The phone he used was really thin, thus it would fit into his boot, so he brought it on missions in case things went awry. He stood up, then ran out of the park.

At the guys' house, Shiru was waking up. It had been about an hour and a half since he had started sleeping. Feeling well-rested, he got out of bed and yawned. He stretched at the same time as this, giving him one of the most pleasurable feelings in the world. Well, to him at least.

"Ah, time to go see what's cooking-" he paused. "I don't smell anything... cooking." he mumbled. "He better not be not making us dinner!" the hedgehog shouted, running out of his room and heading downstairs to the kitchen.

After pounding down the stairs madly, Shiru burst into the kitchen, his mouth agape.

"H-he's not making the f-food?" he gasped. Then his face went red with anger. He let out the loudest scream to ever occur in their house. "Gah!" he raged.

Upstairs, Aero was snapped to alertness after hearing Shiru. The mink had been dozing off, but now he was prepared for the worst thing to ever breach Aurora's mantle- Shiru's hungered rage quitting. Well, it was one of the worst things to happen _figuratively_.

"Huh, damn, this now..." the mink grumbled, face palming himself in the forehead. "And I have to deal with it alone. Psi probably did this on purpose." He face palmed again. "Damn." He leapt out of his bed, sprinting downstairs to calm the hedgehog before they got yet another noise complaint from the neighbors. Shiru got that angry when he was hungry.

Back downstairs, Shiru was quieting somewhat, but he was on his knees sobbing, leaning on his toes with his right hand on his stomach.

"Ugh... why today? _I'm fricking hungry!_" he complained, just as Aero appeared in the kitchen and dragged him out, flipping the switch so that the light was off. Hopefully Shiru would not be able to see the place through his tears of hunger. "Damn, damn, damn, damn!" the hedgehog cursed as Aero dragged him to the living room, tossing him on their black leather couch.

"Man, shut up! If you're hungry go buy a damn pizza! _Damn!_" Aero groaned. Shiru's ears perked up, and Aero smiled. His work here was done.

"Yes! I'll go buy a pizza! You get two slices, I get six! Great idea!" The hedgehog jumped off the couch energetically, put his navy cuffs, gloves, and shoes on, then ran out the door with uncontrollable excitement. Food. In his mouth. A miracle. A dream come true.

"Ugh, whatever, Shiru..." Aero mumbled tiredly as he shut the door behind the happy hedgehog and stumbled to the couch, passing out immediately.


	5. Chapter 5

Psi knocked on the door to Susan's house. It opened around ten seconds after the first knock, revealing the yellow-furred cat. She stared into Psi's eyes for a moment, then began to speak,

"Hey," she greeted.

"Hi." Psi replied.

"You want to come in?" asked Susan rhetorically as she stepped aside, allowing the wolf to enter her house. The wolf looked around, spinning.

"You really changed the place, didn't you?" he asked her. Susan smiled brightly.

"Yep. I wanted it to feel like it had more space." she told Psi. _He noticed it, _she thought, _he really noticed something I did. _Psi went over to the couch and sat down, almost being submerged because it was so soft. He was always caught by surprise whenever he sat in it.

_Wish we had a couch like this back at my house... _he thought with a smile.

"So... what do you want to do? Got anything in mind?" Susan asked Psi, sitting down next to him.

"Eh, I didn't really think of anything to do." he answered. _Besides staring at your beauty. _he smiled again.

"Maybe we could watch a movie or something." Susan suggested. Psi thought about what she said.

"Do you want to go _see _a movie in the cinema?" he asked, secretly glancing at the yellow-furred cat that sat next to him.

"I'd like that," Susan said. "Are there any movies you want to see?" she asked Psi, who shook his head.

"You can choose whatever movie you want to." Susan smiled at the wolf's gesture.

_He's so nice, _the cat told herself. The two got off the couch and went over to Susan's computer to search for a good movie to purchase tickets for.

At the guys' house, Aero was still sleeping on the couch. He woke up when the doorbell rang.

"Uh? Oh, someone's at the door..." he mumbled sleepily. He got up and trudged to the door, yawning before he opened it.

"Aero Integra?" a fox in a black suit asked.

"Yes?" Aero mumbled, straightening his position. "What do you want?"

"It has been reported that a hedgehog calling himself Shane has appeared in Garden Square. He requests to see you at this time." the fox stated plainly.

"Damn hedgehog," Aero grumbled, getting his cuffs, gloves, and boots on. He exited the house and closed the door, following the black suited fox. The two got into an SUV that was painted a satin black, and this SUV transported them to Garden Square, one of the areas just outside of Sunset City.

When they arrived, they found Shiru already at the site, staring Shane down. Shane, a hedgehog with violet fur that had black tips on his three spines, red eyes, black gloves, and black shoes, applauded Aero's arrival.

"Aero, friend, we haven't seen each other in awhile," he smiled.

"Quiet, hedgehog," Aero groaned, "what is it that you want now?"

"Ah, I'm glad that you asked," Shane said, throwing his arms out. "I want this city. And then I want the world. But can you give those to me? No. You don't own them." the hedgehog explained. "However, I can take them. I _will_ take them. And so, I'm starting here with Sunset City." The hedgehog pulled out an imaginary checklist, pretending to check something off of it.

"Heh, good luck with that," Aero breathed. "Haven't you figured out that you can't win?"

"But it appears I can," Shane grinned mischievously, "because you are under arrest." Aero gave a confused look, then was handcuffed by the fox that had brought him to Garden Square. Bystanders watched as Aero was cuffed and thrown into the SUV, which then drove off. Shiru was also confused. However, he was not 'under arrest'. He stared at Shane, gawking like a little kid that had gotten his candy taken away.

"You can't arrest Aero like that!" he exclaimed. "You don't even follow the laws! You're a crazy hedgehog that just wants world domination!" Shane glowered at the orange hedgehog that was shouting at him, raising a hand. Shiru went quiet in order to hear Shane's excuse.

"Who cares? These guys aren't the law- they're my soldiers. They'll be helping me carry out my world domination scheme," he explained, Shiru's ears perking up in confusion. "Get it?" the violet-furred hedgehog asked rhetorically. Shiru just stared at him.

"You're insane..." he growled as he swiftly began to wreak destruction upon Shane's SUVs and men.


	6. Chapter 6

Shiru grabbed the nearest of Shane's men- a red-furred fox- and tossed him at the hedgehog. Shane dodged the flying fox, glaring at Shiru. The fox groaned in pain when he skidded on the ground.

"My turn," Shane grinned. He ran at Shiru and attempted to punch him, however, the orange-furred hedgehog stepped to the side and kicked Shane in his gut.

"You still can't fight!" Shiru said as he tripped the violet-furred hedgehog off of his feet. Shane landed with a thud on the ground. Shiru placed his foot on the hedgehog's back and pulled out some handcuffs he had taken from one of the soldiers tagging along with Shane. He cuffed Shane's wrists, took the violet hedgehog's shoes off, and then cuffed his ankles together. He tossed the key in a nearby trash can, and finally ran off to find Aero.

Shiru darted through streets that contained a continuous trail of skid marks from the SUV's tires.

_It's not that fast, _he concluded, _I should catch it soon enough. I should have time to teach that fox a lesson!_ He dashed forward, dodging cars that had not gotten off of the street. The skid marks made a right, and Shiru slid around the corner. They then made a left, and the orange hedgehog followed suit again. The satin grey SUV came into view. _Target sighted!_ Shiru grinned as he sped up, a blue aura surrounding him as he spin dashed at the rear bumper of the SUV. He made contact, smashing the entire back side and sending the vehicle into the air. It flipped three times before landing on its tires, breaking the wheel axles. Smoke left and dissipated from the engine, allowing Shiru to know that it was going nowhere. He used a homing attack on one of the back seat doors, smashing it off and sending it to the ground, where it fell over. He saw Aero, who was climbing out of the gap where the door used to be. The driver was crawling out of the broken windshield.

Aero rolled out of the SUV and looked at the fox driver. He charged his aerokinesis, letting it go when he felt it would give the driver the punishment he deserved. It crushed the car into a curved plate-like form, but it blew the driver into a building upside down. He fell out of the building indentation and looked up at Aero and Shiru before he passed out. The police were now arriving, and the two figured that they should leave before they were given the blame.

Meanwhile, Psi and Susan were preparing to leave for the movie that they had chosen to go to. It was called 'Guess Who'.

"Okay, Psi, I'm ready to go!" Susan called from upstairs in her bedroom. Psi's ears perked up, and he slipped his phone back into his left ankle cuff. He straightened his back before standing up and yawning. He looked at the stairwell just as Susan appeared on the final step.

"All right, let's go," the wolf told the yellow cat. She nodded her head slowly. Hand-in-hand, they left for the movie theater.

At the theater, Psi offered to pay for both of the tickets. Susan did not want him to do this, but he insisted that he pay for them. The two compromised like mature beings would, and agreed that Susan could pay for the popcorn and beverages. After the paying was done, the two close friends hurried to their movie's showcasing room, mainly because they wanted to see the previews for other movies that would be coming soon.

After ten minutes of movie previews, a message that told everyone in the theater to either turn off or silence their phones came up. Psi complied, silencing his phone on the off-chance that he would get an important call from Aero, Shiru, or some other important person. The movie started, and everyone in the theater went into complete silence.

_Ah, silence, _Psi thought happily. _And Susan, too!_ he smiled.

Aero and Shiru were running and jumping along the tops of buildings, dashing across the gaps that separated them.

"Should we tell Psi about this!?" shouted Aero to Shiru.

"We probably should!" Shiru answered. Aero slid to a stop, just before the edge of a building's roof. He felt in each of his cuffs, but came up empty-handed.

"I think I left my phone back at our house when that fox came over to bring me to Shane." he mumbled.

"Dang. I don't have mine either," Shiru said, feeling around in his cuffs, too. "We're going to have to wait until we see him again. He wrote a note saying that he was going to Susan's place." Shiru informed Aero. "I'm going to guess that you never looked at the board at all." Aero nodded. His friend was right. He had not taken the time to look at the board. How foolish of him. Embarrassing.

"Well, let's just get back home," Aero told Shiru.

"Yeah," Shiru responded, leaping to the building across the next gap. Aero followed the orange-furred hedgehog. They ran, continuously leaping across the gaps, bent on reaching their house in order to at least get some rest. They would be able to tell Psi everything in the morning. Shane's return. Aero's ten minute long capture. Their new objective.


	7. Chapter 7

"So you got arrested by a criminal?" Psi asked in disbelief. "I don't even think they have _handcuffs!_" Shiru put his hand up for silence.

"No, Psi, they were really just going to take him into their custody. He wasn't in a legit arrest." the hedgehog stated with his eyes closed.

"We should be focusing on the real issue," Aero began, "the fact that Shane is in Sunset City and _does _have something planned out. If we don't act quickly, something will go down." he explained. Psi and Shiru nodded.

"Well maybe we could have captured that hedgehog prick if _someone _hadn't decided to go hang out at the movies with his crush _Susan._" Shiru said matter-of-factly. Psi then slapped him across the face in embarrassment.

"I don't have a crush on her," he lied.

"Yes you do," Aero said, "but there's a more important task than dealing with your heart." Psi made a face and growled at the mink that sat across from him at the dinner table. But he knew Aero was right. He _did _like Susan as more than a friend, but he also knew that this was much more important than his emotions. In fact, he would keep it hidden from Susan as long as he possibly could.

"Just tell us what we should do about this stupid hedgehog." Psi huffed, slouching in his chair.

"Alright," Aero began, "you're going to have to forget about Susan. You and I are going to be doing some scouting, just so that we can find where Shane plans to get his little 'domination' scheme set up. We all know that criminals have a base of operations. We also know that Shane is the tiniest bit insane, so it's probably not a very easy-to-find place either." the mink explained.

"Aero, what am I supposed to do during this time?" Shiru questioned. Aero stopped thinking about the scouting mission to give thought to Shiru's assignment. He was out of ideas. "Damn." he cursed. "Just do whatever you feel would help in some way." he sighed.

"Like locating his second-in-command," the hedgehog grinned, "because I have unfinished business with him." He gave an almost evil smirk. Aero nodded, liking Shiru's suggestion.

"You can settle your score _and _help take Shane down with important information at the same time," Aero smiled, "I like it." Shiru closed his eyes and began to run over possible locations of the violet hedgehog's second, Blitz. "Well, that puts an end to this meeting, guys," Aero yawned. "Time to have some buttermilk pancakes!" The three guys stretched and yawned, then went into the kitchen to make the pancakes.

Shane looked up at Blitz, who had found him all cuffed up in Garden Square. Blitz, a yellow-furred ferret with blue eyes, smirked. He wore black shoes and was currently donning his wakizashi sheath, which contained his gold-bladed short sword.

"You didn't catch him, did you?"

"Shut up, Blitz," Shane grumbled. "Just take these stupid handcuffs off of me." Blitz unsheathed his golden wakizashi, placing his right hand on its hilt. He raised it into the air and looked at the cuffs around Shane's wrists.

"You might want to stand up," the ferret told Shane, "unless you want a short sword stuck in your back." Shane listened, not wanting to die before seeing to his world domination. He stood up and waited for the wakizashi to cut the cuffs in half. Blitz sent his sword through the middle of the cuffs' chain, letting Shane's arms fall to his sides.

"What a relief," Shane started. "I can't believe that I managed to stand with these on my ankles, though." Blitz glanced at the cuffs around Shane's ankles before lifting his golden wakizashi above his head again.

"Get on your knees and spread your ankles as far away from each other as you can," the yellow ferret commanded his commander, "unless you want to be without feet for the rest of your life." Shane did as he was told. Blitz sent the wakizashi down yet again, slicing the chain right through the middle again. "Piece of cake!" he smiled, putting the wakizashi into its sheath. He then pulled out a knife from that weird dimensional pocket every single Mobian and Auroran seemed to have. He slipped it in between Shane's wrists and the cuffs that clung to them tightly, then pushed down on the grip. The knife broke the cuff off, and Blitz repeated the action on Shane's other wrist. The hedgehog winced at the pain of the cuffs pushing hard against his fur and skin as the knife pulled them up until they unlatched from each other.

"This hurts," he complained. Blitz glared at him.

"Do you expect me to have butter with me everywhere I go?" the ferret asked rhetorically. Shane gave a heavy sigh and waited for Blitz to bust his ankles while breaking the cuffs at the same time.

"Taking the cuffs off my ankles is going to hurt more, isn't it?" he asked the ferret. Blitz just nodded. Shane sighed again. "Damn." he mumbled. Blitz shoved the knife in between Shane's ankles and the cuffs, pushed down on the grip, and broke both of the cuffs. "Thanks," Shane breathed. Blitz nodded and the knife disappeared.

"Let's get back to the base," Blitz said. Shane nodded, and the two were on their way, although a little more slowly due to the violet hedgehog's ankles.


	8. Chapter 8

Aero was washing the dishes while Psi and Shiru were in their rooms. The mink was bored, and he had some Hoobastank blasting from his phone. He finished washing the last plate, drying it off and then starting the final step of his chore- putting the dishes away. At least it was not a heap of them like it was when family and friends visited for Holidays or special occasions.

_Almost done, then I can go to my room. _Aero told himself, a smile slowly stretching across his face. He wiped the dry towel, which was blue, across and around the plates, around the silverware, around and inside of the glasses the guys had used for milk again for good measure, and finally, he put them all into their respective cupboards. _Done. _he sighed contentedly. He flipped the switch to the kitchen light off, turned his music off, and headed upstairs to his room.

In his room, Aero closed his door. He did not want to be disturbed by Psi or Shiru when they decided to leave _their _bedrooms. He lie down on his bed, putting white and black earphones into his ears, which were hidden by the two thick tufts of fur that curled around his head. He made sure that the music volume was turned down to the lowest octave, as it came in really good thanks to his awesome earphones' power. He started listening to his Hoobastank playlist, putting it on shuffle. He started it off with 'Pieces'.

Psi was in his room texting Susan, laying on his bed. He was smiling, too. He sent the yellow-furred cat a text about 'Guess Who', asking her if she had enjoyed watching it. She responded with a yes and a smiley face emoji. Psi's heart might have warmed up a bit. He got up the courage and asked Susan if she would like to meet him at Garden Square on Saturday. She said yes again, and he responded with a smiley face. She said that she had to go, so he texted her a good bye with a friendly heart emote and set his phone on the nightstand next to his bed. He connected its charger and left the room quickly after.

Psi was now watching 'Sword Art Online', his favorite TV show. The main character, Kirito, was talking with his close friend Asuna.

_Reminds me of Susan and myself,_ he grinned. He turned the volume up two octaves, and continued to watch 'Sword Art Online'.

Shiru was listening to music on his phone just like Aero was, however, he was in _his _room, not Aero's. In fact, the hedgehog had not even noticed that the mink had gone into his room at all. He was too busy not caring about life at the present moment. He scrolled down on his Instagram, observing all of the photos that had been posted. He liked two or three of them, then decided to take a picture of himself. He positioned his phone above his face, then switched the camera to face him through the phone's screen. He gave a bored look and took the picture, looking at the camera so that his eyes were not elsewhere. He added the comment: 'Bored, anyone want to text?'. Shiru's eyes then bulged when he got twenty likes in literally ten seconds.

"Whoa," he gasped. "I knew I was popular, but not _this _popular." He set his phone aside and closed his eyes, rubbing his face. He felt tired, but he could not go to sleep. His phone vibrated. "Text message," he breathed as he felt around for the mobile device and drew his code, seeing who texted him. It was his friend Mirage the Fisher. "Oh, hey," he said to himself. "Haven't talked to you in awhile." He began to type something in.


End file.
